Day 3 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog

Oct 21, 2012 | New guide dog Nama 2012-2020, Personal | 1 comment

The calm before the storm.

Myself and Nama AKA Mr Banks have had a quieter day than usual today. Our instructor had a much deserved day off so our priority was getting him settled into the house, playing a lot and doing some obedience work to remind him that although this is a new environment, I’m still the boss.

Before I go on any further, we have noticed that he just loves slippers. I blame his puppy walker. They must have given him one to play with when he was younger. I’m messing of course. Dogs can tend to think the strangest things are toys. Oh, that brings me onto something that happens occasionally while working. If I shake the lead in my right hand a little to get his attention when he’s distracted by something he thinks I’m playing with him. So much with Nama is just a big game. I like this about him though.

Nama has followed me around the house like my little shadow. I knew this would happen but I thought it would disapate slightly by this stage. He insists on following me around and when I tell him to stay in one place he completely ignores me or when he actually listens and doesn’t move, he cries when I’m in a different room. This is just a little bit of sensitivity, curiosity and separation anxiety. It’s nothing to worry about and in fact shows that the bond is coming along nicely.

We did the same two routes that we worked on on Friday and Saturday. Although Nama was quite distracted at the start and the tention on the harness is quite strong the walks were absolutely fine. Even enjoyable for the most part. The tention through the harness is tiring though. It will improve over the next while but because everything here is new to him it’s all really interesting and excighting. As he becomes more familiar with this area he will settle down a lot. The two routes we did are down to the local coffee shop Esquires and the longer and more complex route to the train station.

Tomorrow will be much more interesting for Nama. We meet the instructor in the morning and we go to Dublin by Train. We visit my office then we cover a few of the routes through the different buildings that I am responsible for. After this we will go to stephens green to let the dog relieve himself before returning to Drogheda by train again. I’ll let you know how it all goes tomorrow evening.

1 Comment

  1. Em-J

    No ones slippers are safe! Unfortunately mine have little baubles which he thinks are for his amusement!

    Reply

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